Watching the drought roll in at Colorado Bend State Park

It took me a couple of tries to figure it out — last week when I told people Kathryn and I were off to Colorado Bend State Park to spend time on the river, several people commented about how much cooler it would be there.

What? West of Killeen about an hour, ten miles of dusty road outside of Bend, Texas (population 1,637), Colorado Bend is not cooler than Dallas. It was over 100° F every day we were there, stayed well above 90° most of the nights.

Kathryn studied wildflowers at a spring at the side of the Colorado River during a break from kayaking; this spring's flow was reduced, but still moist enough to create a near-oasis.

Our well-wishers were geographically confused. They thought we were headed to the Colorado River in Colorado, not the Colorado River in Texas, which is not the same river at all. I didn’t bother to check the temperatures in Colorado, but one might be assured that it was cooler along the Colorado River in Colorado than it was along the Colorado River in Texas.

It was a return trip. We stumbled into the park 16 years ago with the kids, for just an afternoon visit. The dipping pools in the canyon fed by Spicewood Springs captivated us. It took a while to get back, and then the kids were off doing their own thing.

So, just a quick weekend of hiking/camping/kayaking/soaking/stargazing/bird watching/botanical and geological study. Park officials closed the bat caves to human traffic in hope of keeping White Nose Syndrome from the bats; we didn’t bother to sign up for the crawling cave tour through another.

The author, still working to master that Go-Pro camera on the hat -- some spectacular shots, but I don't have the movie software to use it all; you know it's hot when SPF 75 sunscreen is not enough.

What did we see? Drought has a firm grip on Texas, especially in the Hill Country, especially outside of Dallas. The Colorado River is mostly spring fed; many of the springs are dry. No water significant water flowed through the park while we were there — kayak put-ins have been reduced to the downriver-most ramp, and the bottom of the boat launch ramp is three feet above water. Gorman Falls attracts visitors and scientists, but the springs feeding it are about spent this year — just a few trickles came over the cliff usually completely inundated with mineral-laden waters.

Drought produces odd things. The forest canopy around the park — and through most of the Hill Country we saw — is splattered with the gray wood of dead trees, many of which at least leafed out earlier this spring. The loss to forests is astonishing. Deer don’t breed well in droughts; deer around the campsites boldly challenge campers for access to grasses they’d ignore in other seasons. One ranger said he hadn’t seen more than about three fawns from this past spring, a 75% to 90% reduction in deer young (Eastern White Tail, the little guys). Raccoons are aggressively seeking food from humans, tearing into tents and challenging campers for food they can smell (lock your food in the car!). Colorado Bend is famous for songbirds, including the endangered Golden Cheeked Warbler, and the elusive, spectacular painted bunting. But the most commonly-sighted birds this year are turkey vultures, dining on the young that didn’t make it healthy into the summer and won’t survive until fall.

Great trip. Kathryn’s menu planning was spectacular. The old Coleman stove — a quarter century old, now, with fuel almost that old — performed like a champ even without the maintenance it needs (later this week). Other than the hot nights, it was stellar.

Stellar. Yeah. Stars were grand. It was New Moon, a happy accident. A topic for another post, later. Think, “Iridium.”

So posting was slow over the weekend. How far out in the Hill Country were we? Neither one of us could get a bar on our phones. We were so far out the Verizon Wireless guy was using smoke signals.

7 Responses to Watching the drought roll in at Colorado Bend State Park

A change proposed by the Marshall Institute first, wasn’t it? They thought most people would favor “climate change” since it was more amorphous, and might be misinterpreted as “better weather where I am” by millions. Odd how you guys turn on your own rootless ideas if you think it might produce political advantage, sort of a reverse form of Machiavelli-ism.

All the studies were BS. The actual results that proved them wrong were thrown out.

The past decade was the warmest in human history, the global cooling you guys promised has not appeared. Here’s a dare for you: Give us the citations for any “results” which were “thrown out.” If you’re right, show us the facts. If you’re not right, your epithets are completely hollow, aren’t they.

Never forget what Mark Twain said: Telling the truth is a lot easier; you don’t have to remember what lies you told yesterday and work to make them square with today’s falsehoods. You probably regard Twain as “liberal” and a “warmist.”

Meanwhile, the drought in Texas continues. Clouds don’t play politics.

Way to go Hattip. I can’t stand the left wing liberals and their agenda. Just like global warming has now been definded as “Global Change”. All the studies were BS. The actual results that proved them wrong were thrown out.

The smaller ponds here in Austin have dried up. Sometimes they fill in — at least till the next rainy season comes — with plants that couldn’t have grown there before.

Yes, I have done some things with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. A photo-illustrated article of mine is in the current issue of their Wildflower magazine, and another will appear in the fall issue.

I’m about 2 hours away from Colorado Bend, in Austin, where of course we’re suffering fro the same drought that you describe there. In spite of that, I’ve been surprised to find plenty in nature to photograph for my month-old blog (though I’ve occasionally supplemented with pictures from prior years). I go out and take pictures in the morning, when the temperature is still only in the 80s.

You’ve got an overactive, misanthropic, anti-science imagination, hattip. I didn’t say global warming causes the current drought in Texas, though almost all information on climate suggests it has severely aggravated the drought, at a minimum. I merely note that those clowns who deny that Texas is in a serious drought are fools.

Even you appear not to deny the existence of the drought.

How do you claim to attack my empiricism, objectivity, or any thing else, with a foolish, unwarranted attack on global warming facts? How are you being rational in any fashion? How is anyone else’s denying the Texas drought not complete foolishness (considering not even you appear to deny it here)?

Finally, where do I err in my reporting of the tough conditions we saw? You weren’t there. You haven’t been there. You offer not a scintilla of evidence rebuttal.

Have you thought about seeing your physician about your crabbiness? I recommend it.

Try to read what I write, and be rational, every time including the next one.

Really, Ed, you just cannot stop projecting your vile little left wing agenda on anything and everything. While the drought is a terrible thing, it is a morally hideous thing indeed to hijack it for your own political reason.

What is sad is that you actually think you are being “rational”, “empirical” and “scientific”. You are anything but these things. You are a neurotic ideologue. What you are spouting is not even pseudo-science–it is pure propaganda built on lies.

Dead Link?

We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!